With Garrus and Cassia off to the shooting range to practice her rifle work one-on-one, Jane can use all her attention to teach Damocles how to better his biotic control. Ever since his schoolyard fight with the krogan boy - who was older and much bigger than himself - she and Garrus have been working with the twins on both physical and biotic control. Damocles more so than Cassia, but it didn't hurt for her to learn alongside her brother and have that step above all the other children. Hell, at the rate they're learning in just these few months, they can soon be able to out fight many of the older children if there ever comes a problem.
That's if Damocles can fight his frustration enough to learn to concentrate his energy into something useful and not just a burst of uncontrolled power whenever he's angry.
Arcanus had said he'd help in working with the twins on their defensive biotics, but Jane knew they'd have to master being able to command their biotics into any sort of control before they can start to build on defense and offense. If they just jumped right into it, she is sure that their house wouldn't survive the biotic fallout. Once they master bottling their energy into something functional, then - and only then - will she begin teaching things like pulling, lifting, or throwing objects with their biotics and sending them off to their kunkle for work on their barriers and ability to break through that of their enemies.
Practicing like this and drawing on her training in Basic Biotic Control Training when she was at the beginnings of her military career in the Alliance, Jane can actually tell she, herself, is learning better focus. Over the years, she just never thought about the lessons of calming control, only the thought of unleashing biotics in battle and never looking at them off the field. They were tiring enough when trying to save hers or someone else's ass, she didn't need to waste more energy doing fancy shit with them on her down time. With Damocles and Cassia looking to her for guidance, however, even she is changing old habits and becoming a better, more focused biotic.
Still, she can see a direct mirror of her own past frustrations in her son's face as he, once again, fails to fails to cloud himself in biotics without causing it to radiate out in a burst of force. Sitting in front of him, Jane's barrier takes the brunt and easily dissipates the push. She's gotten used to the fact that two untrained botics can easily blow her off her feet - or, in this case, ass - if she doesn't take precautions to deflect their biotics. This way, she can still be close enough to let them watch how she moves in her focus, and she can in turn keep an eye on them should she need to correct any of the posture or adjust her own instructions.
Damocles once more tries to bottle up and project his energy as bare wisps of dark blue waves encompassing his tiny form, but his building upset makes it only harder on the poor kid. As result, he barely manages to hold his shroud before it bursts into a circular force in all directions. Thankfully, they are practicing in the training room with plenty of room, and heavy enough workout equipment to withstand the brunt of the attack, so all that results from the unintentional attack is his angry growl and smash of his hands on the mat.
She frowns and lets out the deep breath she was trying to use to coax him into relaxing his breathing and calm his nerves. Looking to him, she watches him staring at the floor between their sitting forms, glaring at it as if his eyes could burn holes through the practice mat and through the cement beneath. His hands are fisted tight enough for her to worry about his talons against his palms and he chest heaves, mandibles rigid to his jaw, and she can see the frustration and rage written all over his tiny face.
Leaning forward, she reaches out and takes his hands from his sides. "It's okay, little man," she says as she strokes her thumb against his fists to try and coax them to relax and open, "Rome wasn't built in a day."
Her son's face scrunches and she watches confusion wash away some of his irritation as he looks up to her. "What's 'Rome'?"
Jane's mouth opens in surprise, not really sure of the place beyond the saying and what she's seen in the vids. She can only say what she knows and hope he understands well enough. "It's a big, fancy and old city. It's got a bunch of fancy buildings and stuff in it that took a lot of time to build. Hence why the saying says it wasn't built in a day. I means you can't learn everything and be perfect at it without it taking practice. And practice takes time, honey."
"But I'm not doing it." He ducks his head, mandibles fluttering as he keens in what she knows is only a sound of sadness.
Her heart shatters at his sense of defeat and frowns deeply. "Oh, baby." Reaching out, she wraps her arms around him and pulls him into her lap. She wraps her arms around him and reaches down to take his hands. The small lines of blue in his palms make her teeter on the edge of crying, and she takes his hands in hers, careful to keep his palms up and away from any touch. "It's okay." Kissing his head, she nuzzles his short, still curled down fringe. "I'll tell you a secret." She lowers her voice and whispers to him. "Mommy sucked so bad when she was learning. Hell, you're a million times better."
He sniffles and shifts to look up at her, bright eyes glistening in his distraught state. "Really?"
She nods and smiles, kissing his forehead. "Oh, yeah. You blow me out of the water and I was easily double your age." Chuckling, she releases one of his hands to cup his cheek. "I was in the Alliance already and getting my ass wiped by my instructors. And I was an adult." She snorts, saying, "An 'old lady', like you and Cassia like to say."
Finally, he smiles softly and clicks in happiness. He doesn't say anything, but turns in her lap and hugs her tightly. She loves his warm purrs and wraps her arms around his body, rubbing his back in soothing circles. Even now, his body is warm and still charged with energy from his biotics, but he isn't stressed enough for them to hurt. In time, they'll even dissipate and he'll be 'safe' to the touch for nonbiotics.
As she feels him relax in her arms, Jane sits back and looks down into his eyes, smiling. "How about we call it, at least for now. You need some rest and refuel." He nods softly and scoots out of her lap, but she reaches out and gently takes his hands to finally get a good look. Four little crescents cut into his palms, drawing the faintest sign of his cobalt blood. Jane sighs sadly and frowns as she looks up into his eyes. "But first we take care of these boo boos before your biotics drain and they start to hurt."
"Okay, mommy." His voice is soft as she releases his hands to get up. Damocles is on his feet and ready to leave the training room even before she gets to her own feet, and that only makes her feel old.
Damn fake legs and slowing me down.
She knows she's probably being utterly petulant about the fact that, sometimes, her legs need lubricating or they tense up sometimes - this being one of those times - but dammit if she doesn't want to complain about something, even if it's only inwardly. Brushing off her ass once she's up, she lays a hand on her son's shoulder before walking over to the medkit here in the training room. It's well stocked - thank you, Garrus, and your paranoid preparedness - and she easily finds some medigel and bandages to wrap Damocles' hands in.
Her son hisses when she squeezes the antiseptic gel onto his palms, but her smile seems to stop his cry out in pain as he seems to look to her for strength. With the distraction, she can use her fingers to smear the gel over the four cuts before grabbing the bandage and wrapping it a few times around each hand. "There," she says once done and sets the medkit back on the wall before turning to him. "And the final step?" She smiles and takes his hands in her own, lifting them to her lips to gently kiss the bandage. "A kiss to make you feel all better."
Damocles' mandibles spread in a wide grin as he giggles softly and curls his fingers in her hands to hold them before letting go. Turning to the door, he gives her a look that clearly asks when the hell they're going to finally get out of this place and off to do something fun. For Damocles, that usually means getting into trouble, but Jane sees little wrong in that. So long as he's ultimately safe.
She chuckles and opens the door, letting him run out and into the hall first. "How about you see how Xero is? I'm sure he's ready to go potty."
Damocles can't seem to move fast enough as he runs for the small bathroom they've cleaned of anything destructible for the varren to stay in while the family is away or otherwise unable to keep a stern eye on him. Now, why the kids named the varren after a superhero dog from a cartoon they like to watch, she can't quite determine, but she and Garrus stepped back and let them do as they wanted because it is, technically, the twins' varren. Plus, above all, their son in particular absolutely adores the pet, so whatever name he wants - that Cassia will also agree to - is fine by her. More so, is supported full heartedly.
Jane stops to stand at the large glass doors that lead out to the deck, gazing out over the beach and into the darkened sky. She sighs, knowing that rain will come. It doesn't rain too often in this region of Virmire, but when it does, it often pours from a nearly black sky with the roar of thunder and bright blasts of lightning piercing through the clouds. While not a huge factor in biotics, it could be a partial reason Damocles was having such a hard time earlier concentrating, as the electricity in the air during storms used to make her unfocused when she was still getting used to the concept of biotics.
Speaking of, Damocles waddles over with his arms full of squirming varren and a huge grin on his face. She chuckles at him and opens the door for him to lead the way with Xero into letting the varren relieve itself before it makes a massive mess in the house. A mess that would be sure to piss Garrus off and send him into a pissy pout. Jane chuckles at the imagine of her grown mate pouting like one of the twins when they don't get their way and closes the door behind her as she follows their son out across the deck.
"Let's hope he hurries," she says to no one in particular since she's damn sure the varren doesn't give two shits whether or not they're caught in the rain. "Wouldn't want to get wet, right?" She looks down Damocles as he sets the pup down in the grass. He doesn't seem to hear her, but that's just as well. She knows her son enough to know he absolutely abhors when a storm comes, from the sound of the thunder scaring him to it being the reason he can't go out and play. "Want to head inside and I'll make sure he goes? That way, if it does start to pour, you won't get wet?"
Damocles doesn't look to her, his eyes looking nowhere in particular as his nose wiggles as he takes in the pre-rain heightened scent of the beach in the air. She wonders just how much her husband and children can smell in the air in these moments, not quite able to share the experience with her puny human nose, but she's sure it must be as soothing as the lessened one she picks up. Her son wouldn't have the pleased look on his face if it didn't.
"Damocles?" When he looks to her, she smiles warmly and tilts her head. "Want to head in and let me take care of Xero?" Remembering the lessons of responsibility they've been trying to drill into their children's thick skulls and how her offer might be confusing, she adds, "It's okay. You don't have to get wet taking him."
"But…" His mandibles flicker as he looks to Xero hopping into the grass after something. "But he's mine. You and daddy said we have to take care of him if we want to keep him."
She wants to say that that's really an empty threat to take away the puppy should they not step up and help care for it, that she and Garrus would never think of taking away something Damocles, especially, fell in love with. She can't really say what she's thinking, however, because what kind of fucked up mixed signals would that be?
Instead, she nods and lays a hand on his back. "But if it starts to rain and he isn't done, you go inside. Okay?" She gives him a stern look to make sure he understands it isn't really a choice. "I don't want you getting sick."
He looks at the point of protesting, but he simply juts his chin before nodding, giving into her despite his every intention to deny her out of sheer principal. The very idea makes her struggle to hide her smirk at his attempts to be defiant just for the hell of it, and she thinks back to just where he may have gotten that trait. Taking herself and his father into consideration, he probably learned it from both of them.
Jesus. How's he going to be as an adult? More stubborn than a krogan, and thicker skulled too.
Just as Xero squats to - finally - go, the first few sprinkles fall. Jane feels their chill against her bared shoulders and a few drops land on her head to drip through her hair and onto her scalp. She shivers at the only kind of 'cold' to ever grace this tropical planet and sees her son do much the same at her side, wrapping his arms around himself. Neither of them is really suited for standing out in the rain with their loose workout clothes meant to give them air against their skin when their bodies heat up from exertion.
"Alright, young man. In the house." She pats his back and nudges him back towards the house, but he fights her, eyes watching Xero as the pup finishes up.
"But, mommy… He's done…"
"We won't leave him out here, but like hell if I'm going to be drying us all off just because you're being a little shit." Chuckling, she playfully swats his rear and he yelps, giggling as he rushes off and towards the steps to the deck.
Smiling at him, still stubborn as hell, merely standing at the bottom step, Jane shakes her head and walks over to the varren to pick him up. The white and blue pup's mouth falls open as if in a smile of his own as she pets him over his wide head and still stubby spines. She lays a hand on her son's head when she closes in on him and jerks her chin in direction to climb up ahead of her. Taking the steps two at a time, Damocles will glance at her over his shoulder before finally reaching the flat of the deck and hopping on his feet, arms out for Xero and eyes pleaing.
"Alright, alright." Jane snorts as she gives the puppy over to Damocles and all but pushes him in with her hands on his shoulders just as the rain begins to truly pour down.
They're pelted just enough to soak their few pieces of clothes and make the hairs on her bared - and mostly bared - arms and legs. Her son managed to not get as much rain, but he still shivers in a human gesture of heat conservation and one that his father isn't quite capable of.
I hope he and Cassia found somewhere dry and warm over there where they are.
Damocles sets Xero down to shake off all the water droplets from his body, and her son laughs with his hands up against the onslaught of thrown water. Jane snorts and leans down to kiss his chilled fringe. "Make sure he doesn't get on the furniture yet."
"Okay, mommy." She hears him say as she walks towards the downstairs bathroom to grab towels.
It isn't a moment before she hears the sharp crack of thunder and the scream of her son intermingled with the sound. Jane quickly grabs the towels from the shelf and runs out just as he crashes right into her legs. She unintentionally knocks him to the ground by the force of their collision and he lands with a heavy thump, Xero unhelpfully climbing into his lap.
"Oh, baby," she says, tossing the towels on the floor and kneeling before him with a frown and pang in her chest at causing pain to her own son. "I'm so sorry." She pulls him into her arms and grabs a towel from the heap to wrap him in. "Please forgive me."
"I'm scared, mommy," he whimpers as she rubs the towel over his fringe and arms, fighting to get him dry and warm with his hands trying to grab and cling to her. "Mommy… mommy…"
Jane sits and pulls him into her lap, holding him tightly to her chest. How can she help him from his fear of something as natural and uncontrollable as bad weather? And, what's worse, she can't remember her own childhood enough to know the fear, to even begin to know how to fix this. Add to that that her mother was a horrible woman who didn't give a fuck about how her own daughter felt or what was needed to soothe the pain or fright of everyday life? How could her mother have ever help overcome fears when she, herself, caused so many of them?
"Shh, shh. It's okay." She whispers comforting sounds of nothing to him, grabbing another towel to wrap around him to offer the warmth and feeling of safety. "It's not going to hurt-"
Another crack and he cries out, vocals and voice piercing as he claws at her. She deals with the knicks of his talons and thinks distantly about needing to help him trim them, but it all means nothing to the current panic of being completely lost. Certainly Garrus would know what to do, but she can't really stop Damocles from being scared just so she can call him up.
Why did I ever think I could be a mother?
Damocles keens in stress as he sniffles and clings to her, hands kneading her flesh and the towels in fright. All she can do is try to fix this in the now, and worry about the consequences or what she does wrong later, so she shifts them to get to her knees. Using the muscles of what little of her thighs remain and the mechanics of her artificial legs, Jane gets to her feet and heads for the living room. She trusts Xero to be at her heels, the pup never far from Damocles at any time the varren can help it.
The storm outside is dark and powerful enough to leave the sea in nothing but the white caps of raging waves. Rain pours down in sheets across the deck and beach beyond, but Jane knows Virmire will survive. It always does. Almost as if it lives a life so much like those of the people who have called this world home.
She takes Damocles to the couch and sits with him still in her arms, his side to her chest and towels wrapped tightly around his tiny body to keep him warm and feeling safe. Watching the storm outside, and grateful that most of the lightning is breaking across the sky far enough away that the thunder reaches them as a bare trace of rumbling, Jane rubs her son through the towel in attempt to get him dry even if she can't get his clothes off at this moment.
His whimpers break her heart as he glares out at the rain, as if condemning it. She blinks away tears as she presses her forehead to his temple plate, trying to think of something to say. All she can think of is what she had to do to her monsters, the only thing that was left to do.
To fight.
"Damocles?" She tilts her head to look down on him. "Do you know what I do to something that scares me?" He looks to her, eyes glistening and vocals keening in fright, and shakes his head. "I get mad. I fight back." Looking up to the large glass pane doors, she motions with her chin to the storm. "Don't let this stupid storm see you scared. Get angry." She smiles back down to him. "You yell back at the thunder, show it it can't do a damn thing to you."
He frowns. "But…"
She shakes her head. "No 'buts'. 'But' is just a word." She smiles and stands up, holding him to her hip. He grows more tense with each step towards the windows, but she doesn't let him falter and allows her strength in her embrace give him courage. "Just remember, scream back in rage. Teach that thunder who's boss." When he seems to falter again, she leans her head closer to his own. "I'll be right here, screaming with you."
He pulls his mandibles tight to his chin and gives one solid nod. Not a moment too soon, either, as - almost immediately and seemingly out of challenge - lightning shoots across the sky and throw a bright light across the living room. Thunder cracks before the resulting glare in her vision dissipates and Damocles flinches a moment before she looks to him and nods once.
Both turn to the window and scream, and she can hear his frustrations from the entire day in his practical roar that drowns out her own shout. It doesn't last long before his voice seems to just cut off and his mandibles flicker as he looks to her, almost as if he's looking for approval. Knowing he did better than she'd have imagined by just following instinct in trying to help him, Jane smiles and hugs him tight.
"I'm so proud of you," she whispers as she kisses his cheek. "Don't you ever let that thunder scare you." Hearing his happy purr and feeling his nuzzle against her shoulder, she tilts her head to lay on his own. "Be strong, be fearless."
"Will I be a hero like you and daddy?"
She chuckles softly and nods, setting him down as he wiggles to be let go. "You will be a greater hero." Rubbing his fringe playfully, she kneels down and pets Xero. "And your first person to rescue?" She picks up Xero and puts him in Damocles' hands. "He's scared of the thunder too. He needs you to be strong, just like your superheroes."
Damocles grins and hugs Xero to his chest. "I will protect you, Xero."
Xero seems to grin again as he makes a strange mix of chirp and bark, tongue lolling out. Jane chuckles and rubs the varren's head before looking to her son. "Go get into something warm and I'll make something to eat. Then, we can watch movies and cartoons all day until the storm stops."
Grinning and trilling in excitement, her son lets out a yelp of joy before rushing to the stairs and leaving Jane to shake her head at the child's ability to switch emotions so quickly. She envies that, the 'live in the moment' attitude, and hopes, in time, he and Cassia can teach her that.